Panhandle Caverns and Caves 4-24 thru 5-9-10

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Spring-SpringFest 2010

After arriving at Vortex the previous night, just in time to setup the tent and get under casa-de-cajun grubbage(aka jhayes, mrxray, and hetlands gaggle of canopies) for a hefty sum of awesome crawfish, sausage, corn, etc. It was fantastic and by the time the night was over the party had nearly devoured two sacks of crawfish. The rain started, but it wasn't too bad, and a little alcohol went a long way in allowing us to ignore the weather.

4-24-10 Morrison and Vortex

Saturday morning came, and we didn't get up too early. After a bit of breakfast we headed over to Morrison Springs, arriving a little after 9AM. There were a few other classes onsite, but it wasn't too crowded yet. We parked on the left side of the pavillion and geared up to hit the water. It was still overcast and it drizzled on occassion, but overall nice.

TheAwesomeFish was feeling very comfortable and led the dive out the depression. She made quick work of the descent, despite the flow coming up and out of the lower cavern entrance. Once popping into the cavern, the flow seemingly diminished and we were caught in the spacious water column filling lower Morrison Spring. Visibility was pristine, as usual, and there were lots of catfish and eels out. Noticably more eels than our previous visit onsite and they were much more active. We checked out the sand boils on the bottom as well as the main vents. I pulled myself up to the large fissure crack and it sure seems to want to just draw me in... Eventually, we turned the dive and started our ascent out of the lower cavern. On our way up, we were passed by two other divers walking their way into the cavern. I just hope they realize most caverns aren't that forgiving. Once they finished up in the lower cavern, they walked into the shallower cavern, which can get really silty. Luckily for them, the now healthy aquiffer seems to be pushing enough water, even out of the shallow cavern, for the silt to be blown out. We goofed around in the basin a bit and checked out the cypress lined outskirts. Eventually, we headed out of the water with a max depth of 88' for a dive lasting 51 minutes. There were some fireworks at the park while we geared down, but thats already been addressed in a different thread on ScubaBoard. Vis was no worse than 40' in OW(better closer to the depression) and as good as 100' in the cavern.

We hit up 4Cs BBQ for lunch, it continued to impress Good stuff! Then off to the campsite for a nap, it was great having the opportunity to be lazy.

Nearly five and a half hours later, MsAwesome and I'd be back in the water. This time we were descending down into Vortex Springs. Our laziness paid off and most of the crowds had thinned out, leaving us with slightly better visibility no worse than 20' and getting better towards the cavern(around 50'). I tied in a primary line at the cavern upline, and circled around near the reaper sign and into the alcove off to the side which has some great little clay banks. The eels were prevelant here too, so after goofing around a bit, we headed up and down one of the false caves. Once through it, we circled around to the talkbox, then through the other false cave. We'd nearly exhausted all the 'rides' found in this amusement park so we circled the basin, chased some coi, some grass carp, and headed back around to our exit stairs. We hit a max depth of 60' for 43 minutes.

Per Spring-Spring Fest tradition, the night was set with music(most of which was sung by other SpringFesters), some awesome food off the community grill(and more of the private grills back at the campsite canopies). It was great fun, and it was great hanging out with everyone again, old friends, new friends, springfesters, Vortex staff, etc. Shane and the Vortex crew always put on a great event for SpringFest and Vortoberfest, I'm very much looking forward to Vortoberfest this year! My head was spinning when I hit the bed, and the next morning was threatening... but I kept all contents.

4-25-10 Cypress Springs

TheAwesomeFish and I broke down camp and prepared a bit of breakfast. Then we noticed Jhayes, MrXray, and Hetlands campsite cooking up a storm again. We opted out of Frosted Flakes and headed over to our neighbors along with several other SpringFesters. The cheesegrits were great, not to say any of the rest of it wasn't. We ate like kings, then parted ways in search of clear water.

The weather finally cleared out and blue skies prevailed with a breeze and alot of sunshine. After waiting for another boat to launch, TheAwesomeFish and I setup the Miss Jellyfish, filled it up with gear, and tossed her into the water. My outboard wasn't idling very well, but I just cranked her up and threw her in gear and it got us to Cypress in one piece. Definately time for the motor to hit the pro's for a tuneup.

Cypress Springs was beautiful, exactly the way its supposed to look.

There were better than a half dozen other boats on site, but no other divers. Nobody too drunk at that point, just alot of people soaking up the sun and enjoying a truly beautiful day. We got some looks as we suited up and started strapping tanks on, then slipped under the surface. Visibility was outstanding, 100'+ per usual. There were lots of crawfish out and bream and bass everywhere. I hooked in a line and ran it off into the cavern, crawling hand over hand past the restriction where the flow lets up. There were more eels in this cavern, as well as rock bass, and catfish. We looked into the many nooks and crannies within the cavern and Ms.Awesome even pointed out a new one that I hadn't noticed before, she motioned for me to check it out, which I did making a silty mess - LOL. It was just a breakdown room that opened up past a restriction just enough to turn back around in. Neat though. Once finished up in the cavern, we were shot back out into OW, and started looking around the basin. There was a school of mullet that eventually swam into the spring for a bit. We watched several swimmers and even a dog swim across the basin. Kinda neat seeing this kinda stuff from an entirely different point of view. We took a little break and jumped back in to take a few pictures with TheAwesomeFish's camera, which has some limited UW capability(good to 10') so we took a bunch of pictures in hopes of getting something fun and something for the background of her aquarium. We had a max depth of 49' with a total dive time of 67 minutes.

The boat ride back went without a hitch, but the locals got a laugh at me jamming the boat in gear with as much throttle as I had running to it... just not doing good at low RPMs. It got us back though, we packed her up, and headed up SR277 into Chipley, then looked around the old train station and kaboos, then went to Cancuns for some awesome mexican grub. Got home at a fairly reasonable time, which is unusual, but nice. It was a really great weekend of diving, without being rushed, just relaxed, lots of good buddies, great food, and maybe even a little bit of booz. Life is good!

I'll have last weekends report up in the morning on this same thread...

 

[Hetland]

Glad to have you guys at the camp.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

5-7-10 Jackson Blue Spring

DogHouseDiver had been itching to jump back in the water. School and work had been eating at him just a bit too much so we made plans to get a dive in Friday night. I had plans for Saturday and Sunday, so I just moved my entrance into Florida up a day. After loading the Miss Jellyfish ontop the car, along with a load of scuba gear, I met up with DHD at the Raceway in Loxley and we caravaned over to Marianna, Florida. I had called in earlier to check us into the spring and we both already have annual passes. A quick stop at McNasty for some fast grub and we were at the spring. Ben M was there, already geared down after a shake-down dive with his new lense and reorganized strobe setup. He seemed happy with it and we talked a bit before he took off to leave us to our diving.

The weather was awesome by this point, a cool night with a ton of stars lighting up the sky. An assortment of insects, amphibians, and other creatures provided our soundtrack as we setup sidemount tanks, and geared up. The flow was lower than my last trip into JB, as I tied off a primary and swam it down to the goldline. From there we worked our way to the back of the cavern and started looking around slowly. Then we let the flow take us as we drifted back down the other side of the cavern break down and slowly worked our way back upstream. I signaled for DHD to hold while I pushed the Young's restriction again, then came back up through the cavern. DHD found a hole in the breakdown that led to a little room with lots of fossils. We had a good time looking all around the cavern area before eventually drifting back to the primary, where DogHouseDiver took the reel for our exit. I had a max depth of 93' for a total dive time of 46 minutes. It was a perfect warmup for the weekend, and I somehow managed not to piss myself - I'm awesome.

We parted ways as DHD headed home, I headed to a buddies house to crash for the night with an early start in mind for Saturday. It was good to see DogHouseDiver back in the water, I hope that was enough to get him back under more often.

5-8-10 River Springs

Saturday morning came early and I beat the alarm clock to consciousness. I took advantage of the extra time to log Friday nights dive and looked out over Merrits Mill Pond, drinking my coffee(ie RedBull). Ben M was up already too and we talked diving and cameras until our departure time came around. I stopped and filled up the boats gas tank, then headed off to Cave Adventurers to fill tanks. There were already a few people out there, so we didn't beat the crowds completely, but it didn't take too long to get our fills and head out. BGillespie met us out there as well, he loaded up with Ben M, who was towing his boat(name?) along for this trip. We headed out once filled as we had one more dive buddy to meet up with enroute. We made it to our meeting spot, on time, to find Jim C waiting for us. Now with a full team of four, we headed south to our intended boat launch. The water levels were higher than I've ever attempted diving these particular springs, but their flow lead me to believe they'd still be pushing hard despite the head pressure.

We geared up at a mostly flooded boat launch and got both the boats running. Both the Miss Jellyfish and Jim/Ben's john boat, just had their motors worked on, so we weren't completely confident in them... but atleast there were two boats for redundancy! Out into the creek we went, then off into the river, both of which had swelled well out of their banks and into the flood plain. Foliage was still spring green and the trip was enjoyable in itself. We spotted a hawk or two and even a kite along the way. There were several fish breaking the surface and it seemed a good day to toss a line into the water despite the muddy consistancy of the waterways. The trip to our first spring didn't take too long, probably about an hour, and the basin was still uninhabitted as we tied off to some trees within the floodplain. The basin itself was slightly blue, but the floodwaters came right up to it. There were still a strong boil over the spring. Not long after that we had a few boats and a jetski come out to enjoy the surface of the spring as well. They were having a good time, brought a grill to cook out on their boats, an assortment of food, and water toys. They were also courteous enough to ask us if we had divers in the water when then passed into the basin.

After gearing up, we hit the water. The tannic murk on top gave way to clearer blue water below 15' or so and we found our spring entrance. We also found a rope ladder on the way that I tied up on a log to hang our deco bottles to... improtu deco trapeze!...sorta. The entrance restriction was easily negotiable, the head pressure brought the flow down to an easily managable one handed climb into the cavern. Usually you have to fight and scrape your way in with both hands. Once we were all inside, we started heading into the flow. BGillespie and myself dove as a team; and Ben M and Jim C dove as a seperate team, albeit we dove as a group for the most part. Jim C called the dive a bit early and told Ben M to continue forward. The cave makes several ups and downs and the walls are typically either covered in sheets of goethite or stained limestone with fossilized tubeworms adorning them. Loose bone fragments can be found scattered on the floor. Several hundred feet in, the tunnel heads deeper and the walls become a bit more consistant, a tannish color and very scraggly. We didn't get far into the deep section before BGillespie turned us around and we started our drift out. Ben M continued a bit further solo. Despite the 40-50' visibility we had on the way in, our percolation had dropped visibility to about 10' for our exit. It took no time to get out, even just drifting. We popped out the entrance restriction and into OW, did a 3 minute safety stop and listened to all sorts of commotion above us. Then we swam towards our boats and surfaced. The noise we heard was just people jumping in the water off their boats - LOL. One of them eventually lost a fin and BGillespie eventually found it as we dove around their boats and the outskirts of the basin looking for it. Ben M surfaced a bit afterwards and we geared down, loaded up, and started towards our next location. I had a max depth of 81' for a dive time of 44 minutes. Still my favorite cave.

After a maze of navigating through small creeks and flood plain, seemingly driving through the tops of trees with the water levels this high, we found ourselves looking down at a small spring basin thats completely tannic with black river water. It was just over an hour and a quarter after our last dive that we were back in the water here. There was no boil, which I've always seen in the past, and I wondered if the water levels were too much for this particular spring... It was agreed upon that I would drop down and check it out before anyone else would bother with gear

After dropping down about 15' I found blue(OK, green) water and surfaced to get everyone else to gear up. BGillespie was all about it, Ben M was a bit reluctant, but gave in(again), and Jim C decided he'd just stay on the surface in order to steal a boat if he got too hungry - LOL. We all dropped down a steeply sloping basin through tannic water, into clear water that issued gently(not usually) out of the scalloped chimney to the bottom of OW, which just happened to be the top of the cavern. The cavern is beautiful here, very scraggly, streaked from sand erosion, but has alot of particulate and loose sand. The bottom is a tangle of line, limbs, dead turtles(this seems to be where they come to die), and a tight little passage that leads to a restriction with an awefull lot of flow. I'd never been able to push this restriction before, but today would be no different. The flow is bad, but I think probably managable. The bigger hangup is the sand issuing out sandblasting your face and gear. Visibility is essentially 2' due to the sand and it plays havoc with scuba equipment. I had two free flows that I managed easily, then my inflator jammed on, but I was able to work through that as well, but enough was enough, and I let the flow push me back into the cavern. Ben M took a shot after me and found the same sand storm. By this time all the fine sand and percolation in the system had dropped visibility down to around 5' or so. This seemed like a good enough time to start our ascent and make our exit. I had a max depth of 89' for a dive lasting only 21 minutes.

The ride back against the river was a bit slower, but it was a great day, and I think everyone enjoyed the ride as much as the dives. Ben M tossed us a couple of cliff's bars to eat on, we were starving. Breaking down the boats came easily and we all headed in different directions due to time constraints. We'd be meeting back up on Sunday anyway.


I'll have to get Sunday up later on today.... gotta get ready for work.

 

[IXΘYΣ]

Nice report. I always enjoy your write-ups.
Thanks.
><>

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Glad you enjoy them, still one more day to report on, just one more dive... probably do it during lunch break

 

[Kenny P.]

Thanks Mat! Sounds like a great adventure!
Bless,
Kenny P.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

5-9-10 Leon Co Sink

Sunday morning came early enough, and I snoozed until I just didn't have time to procrastinate any further. The weather had completely turned around from Saturday afternoon's thunderstorms and it was completely blue outside and there was actually a bit of chill in the air. I met up with Ben M and Jim C onsite and they had already gotten tanks down the steep depression of our sinkhole. The water was milky blue, likely due to the runoff, but we had confidence the cave itself would be clear. I geared up and after a few trips down the hole, we were ready to dive. Ben M, happy with Friday's photo results, brought along his monstrocity of a camera rig for the dive. He gave me and Jim both a strobe to use slaved for his photos.

With the water being as milky as it was, visibility was 1-2' on the surface, I ran a primary from open air, down the depression under the ledge(where the water was clearing finally) and into the mainline. We negotiated the entrance restriction relatively easily, although I think Ben M(last in line) probably didn't have much visibility and made quick work of the first 75' or so of cave thats relatively low. Once through that point, we had alot more space in the water column to swim about. Ben swung out the arms on his camera rig and it looked like he was pushing around a model airplane around the cave. It has to be better than 4' across. We stayed on the mainline, keeping on the 'main' passage at the "T"s and watched the layered colorful portion of cave with scraggly formations and different strata give way to pure white limestone and smaller passage towards the end. We found EOL before too long and turned to head back to some of the "T"s, the first to the low wide room and the second to the second 'entrance' that leads you to a very low duck under that barely allows view of a glowing OW section. The latter tunnel was a bit murky, colder, and littered with debri from the surface. At that point, we came back out to the mainline and took one of the jumps that begins right next to the mainline. A double ender connection later, and we were heading down a few hundred more feet of colorful passage. By this time, I started get concerned with the time so I called the dive ,still plenty of gas in the 72s, but I had previous obligations to attend. The journey out was short and our ascent was direct once in OW since the majority of the basin was just too messy to explore. Had a max depth of 63' for a dive lasting 75 minutes. Water temp 71F, still amazing to have that available in the panhandle??? A couple trips to get everything back to the vehicles and we found a little extra time grab some subway before going our seperate directions. Ben M and Jim C would meet up with BGillespie for another dive further south. My diving was finished for the weekend.

Had a great weekend with some great dive buddies. Got to take the Miss Jellyfish out again, freshly tuned motor, which worked great! Looking forward to my next weekend of diving, not positive when that'll be yet - maybe this weekend.... in salt water?? Ack.

 

[jhayes75]

Great reports Mat, I wish that camera of yours was submersible. It was good having you at the camp with the TheAwesomeFish.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

J - Ben M brought a nice big camera rig for our last dive on Sunday(although it wasn't his last dive of the day). He posted the below on one of the other forums.

We negotiated the entrance restriction relatively easily, although I think Ben M(last in line) probably didn't have much visibility

Much? How about any. I had to negotiate the entrance restriction and line trap in zero vis with my hands full. It was good practice and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to work on my skills.

All kidding aside, this is a pretty little cave and Mat describes the changing features pretty well. Here are some of the photos where you can see some of the changing features.

The rest of the album can be seen here.

Picasa Web Albums - 11835200593609458... - Church

 

[GLENFWB]

Ben is killing me with those awesome shots....I keep saying to myself...."I will NOT buy more strobes, I will NOT buy more strobes!"